AUSTIN - The question was loaded. To be fair, that should be acknowledged up front. And to be honest, it almost felt silly to even ask it.

But unfortunately, the mind-numbing tedium of an eight-month offseason lends itself to such exchanges. And even though Texas defensive tackle Chris Whaley had no hope of answering it correctly, the query came anyway.

Do opponents think the Longhorns are tough?

"They know," Whaley said. "They know we're tough."

That perception, of course, remains debatable. Only two weeks earlier, at Big 12 media days in Dallas, Oklahoma defensive back Aaron Colvin implied that the Sooners' track record of dominating UT has the Longhorns intimidated, saying, "They know we're going to bring it."

Kansas State linebacker Tre Walker went a step further. Asked about how UT handled falling behind the Wildcats last season in a blowout loss at Manhattan, Kan., Walker shrugged his shoulders.

"They kind of laid down a little bit," Walker said. "That's nothing to say about their character. That's just what they do."

Winning stops the talk

Unfair? Perhaps. Few accusations are easier to make than those about someone's supposed lack of an unquantifiable trait like grit, toughness or mettle. But the Longhorns aren't dummies, either.

They realize they return more experience than any other team in the Big 12, that many of their veterans were recruited more heavily than players elsewhere in the league, and that they're still picked to finish fourth in the conference. What do people think they're missing?

The Longhorns have heard Walker's comments, too. And as much as they'd like to fire back, UT safety Adrian Phillips acknowledged they can't do that yet.

"You don't want to hear that as a team," Phillips said. "The way to change that is to win games."

Statements like that have been emanating from the mouths of UT players for years now, but there are signs the Longhorns might finally be getting fed up enough to act upon them. Defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat and offensive lineman Trey Hopkins, both seniors, talked this summer about their desire to unleash frustration that has been building since they were freshmen.

Whaley, another senior, nodded his head when asked if UT's 22-16 record since 2010 has put a chip on his shoulder.

"Those three years - we have to get them back," Whaley said.

Will the Longhorns be able to do that by suddenly becoming tougher or meaner or embodying some other kind of cliché that fills the blather of the offseason? Maybe.

More likely, if UT wins this fall, it will be because David Ash is the Big 12's most seasoned quarterback and because Hopkins is one of the league's best blockers and because Jeffcoat is an NFL star in the making.

It will be because a defense that was terrible last season got a couple of injured players healed and finally learned how to tackle. And because Johnathan Gray found a groove and Malcolm Brown stayed healthy. It will be because Daje Johnson, Jaxon Shipley and Mike Davis can run fast and because the Longhorns finally got sick of talking about losing.

"It's the feeling of everybody," cornerback Carrington Byndom said. "Everybody thinks it's time to start striving for greatness and stop being mediocre."